Michael James Murray an international Director of Photography who’s traveled extensively to far flung places in the world, including the North Pole, nearly 6 continents and several military bases around the world. Specialies and certificaitons include arctic climates, and PADI Advanced Scuba Certification.

Branded Work

Documentary Shorts made for Various Brands

Client: Ecko

What goes through the mind of an unbeaten boxer in lead up to the biggest fight of his career? How must he prepare? What must he endure? How does it affect his loved ones? Watch Danny Garcia’s mental, physical and spiritual preparation in a new in-depth new film, Undefeated.

CLIENT: Jack Daniels

London bartender, Nathan Shearer heads off to Lynchburg, Tennessee to show you the Jack you don’t know. Watch as he meets the folks at the distillery and descendants of Mr. Jack himself to understand what makes the oldest registered distillery in the US so special.

CLIENT: YouTube Music

Låpsley is a rising British musician and producer—she’s also an intrepid music journalist. In a Vice documentary, presented by YouTube Music, she takes us on a thrilling journey all the way to the city of Tbilisi, Georgia. There, she speaks to the people passionate about turning the city’s crumbling Soviet architecture into a new haven for dance music.

VICE x International Olympic Committee : "Identify" Series

The Olympic Channel, an initiative of the International Olympic Committee, launched "Identify," a new documentary series that profiles five different athletes in five separate episodes as they make their marks in the sports world. The series, which was produced in partnership with Vice Media, was created to showcase world-class athletes who are transgender and determined to compete at the highest levels. By highlighting their real-life experiences, the creators hope the series encourages others within the LGBTQ community to live an authentic life and pursue their passions.

Olympic Channel Series Trailer

The inspiring journey of transgender athletes and how sport helped them find their true identity.

Meet the Transgender NCAA Swimmer from Harvard

Schuyler Bailar is a decorated swimmer who was recruited to Harvard as a female, but has found peace after transitioning to a male.

Former Olympic Hopeful Fighting for Trans Athletes

After missing out on Olympic qualification as woman, Pat Manuel returned to competition after transitioning. Can he now find challengers to return to the top of boxing?

Drone Reels

As a director of photography who travels all over the world and FAA certified drone pilot, I make sure to bring my drone with me everywhere I go. Below are a select sample of my work from a few of my favoirte places.

Drone: Kite Skiing in Svalbard

This past winter I was shooting a film in Svalbard about some Norwegian Kite Skiers who were attempting to cross the island of Spitsbergen by Kite. Here’s a short selection of drone shots I filmed while there.

Drone: Laos

While traveling through Laos filming for a production of a travel show I’m creating, we stopped in Laos to tell a story of a place called Nirvana. Here’s a select few drone images from paradise.

Drone: Iceland

I spent some time in Iceland creating a new episode for my travel show “Wander.” As part of that show, I collected a decent amount of drone footage from around the country. I’ve laid out some of my favorite shots from the trip, accompanied by a score I created.

"Surviving the Arctic" Series

In the arctic, every decision you make has potentially life threatening consequences. Even a brief exposure to the near-freezing temperatures of water in the arctic circle can be a death sentence. VICE'S Motherboard went out into the great white wilderness of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, the northernmost city in the world, to learn what it takes to survive in one of the world's most extreme climates with survival expert and outdoorsman Francisco Mattos.

Surviving The Arctic “Cold Water Survival”

A dunk in the Arctic Ocean doesn’t have to spell certain death if you know what you’re doing. Survivalist Francisco Mattos shows us how to stay alive and afloat.

Surviving The Arctic “Polar Bears”

With no experience and no real proof he could pull it off, Ryan Carney followed his dream to be his own boss and jumped in without a safety net. Now, Kinfolk, the brand he co-founded has its own clothing line, bar, night club, restaurant, and no signs of slowing down.

Surviving The Arctic “Glacier Survival”

With no experience and no real proof he could pull it off, Ryan Carney followed his dream to be his own boss and jumped in without a safety net. Now, Kinfolk, the brand he co-founded has its own clothing line, bar, night club, restaurant, and no signs of slowing down.

Budweiser x Noisey: "Made Me" & "Made in a Minute" Series

A series presented by Budweiser, produced by Vice's Noisey that highlights various artists success stories behind some of their breakthrough songs.

Made in a Minute |Fitz & The Tantrums

Fits of Fitz and the Tantrums describes his first tatse of success in this episode of “Made in a Minute.”

Made Me |Kate Nash

On the newest installment of “Made Me,” Kate Nash describes the way she first found out that “Foundations” was breaking big.

Made Me |Haim

Haim trace their success from their childhood roots in this “Made in a Minute.”

VICE Documentaries

Over the past several years I've traveled both nationally and internationally as a Director of Photography for Vice Media.

DJ Jaz and the Episco Disco, 2017

John aka ‘JAZ’ is an Episcopalian minister by day and cosmic-disco slinging DJ by night—exploring where the lord’s teachings and dancefloor intersect. In the first episode of THUMP Profiles, Vice travels to JAZ’s home in Charleston, South Carolina to catch a sermon behind the altar (and the decks), firsthand: from his eclectic ‘OFF/BEAT’ party to an “Episco-Disco” in the crypt of a centuries-old church.

Rave New World: The Krakow Rave Cave, 2016

Rave New World is the first documentary series of its kind: a dance music fan’s guide to the weirder side of travel. Gear up for a trip to the most far-off, out of the way parties from around the globe. In the first episode, Vice visited Kraków for Unsound, a festival featuring surprise headliners in unconventional spaces.

Hands Up! How Baltimore Weathers the Storm, 2015

In ‘Hands Up! How Baltimore Weathers The Storm,’ Vice went to Baltimore to find out how local DJs and producers are responding to Freddie Gray’s death with music, sampling the sounds of protests and police sound cannons to create political anthems, and throwing fundraising parties to bring their communities together.

Family, Faygo and Flosstradamus: Trap Music at The Gathering of the Juggalos, 2015

Chicago trap lords Flosstradamus delivered a very talked-about performance at the Gathering of the Juggalos. A yearly festival in rural Ohio centered around the music of Insane Clown Posse, the Gathering has been shrouded in controversy since its inception in 2000.

HeadHunter: The Five Trends from Summer Festivals, 2015

Vice’s Noisey and Garnier Fructis teamed up to travel to music festivals across the US throughout the summer, to check out what people are wearing, and what they’re doing with their hair.

The New Kings of Kong, 2014

Following the cultural success of 2007’s King of Kong documentary, which followed the joystick jousting between former reigning champ Billy Mitchell and family man challenger Steve Wiebe, a second generation of DK contenders has appeared. Vice attended The Kong Off 3 in Denver, where we spent four loopy days in a dark arcade documenting the action-packed rivalry between two of Donkey Kong’s fiercest adversaries: Hank Chien, a 39-year old plastic surgeon who graduated from Harvard and 22-year old French Canadian meathead, Vincent Lemay.

Verizon Sub.Culture Travel Series

In 2016, with Vice and Verizon, we explored the vibrant music scene of Cuba - visiting Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantanemo - to learn about its rich cultural history. We traveled to Cuba to take a look at a dance music scene that's thriving despite the lack of technology available to artists on the island. Through the stories of some of Cuba's most pioneering electronic artists, our latest three-part doc explores the island's rich electroacoustic music history to the latest movement of DJs pushing their own community forward, leading up to MANANA, Cuba's music festival.

Sub.Culture Cuba Part I

In part one of SUB.Culture Cuba, we learn how a group of pioneering electroacoustic artists experimented with combining modern gear and traditional styles to shape a new era of music on the island in the 1960s.

Sub.Culture Cuba Part II

In part two, we hear personal stories from the younger generation of DJs who came up in the early 90s, channeling the economic turmoil brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union and impending embargo, into a groundbreaking, underground movement of house and techno.

Sub.Culture Cuba Part III

In the the third installment of the series, we head to Santiago de Cuba, to see how dance music’s path through the decades has resulted in the scene’s most vibrant moment.